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<h1><a name="SECTION00151200000000000000000">
13.12 <tt class="module">dumbdbm</tt> --
         Portable DBM implementation</a>
</h1>

<p>
<a name="module-dumbdbm"></a>

<p>
<a id='l2h-2549' xml:id='l2h-2549'></a>

<p>
<div class="note"><b class="label">Note:</b>
The <tt class="module">dumbdbm</tt> module is intended as a last resort fallback for
the <tt class="module"><a href="module-anydbm.html">anydbm</a></tt> module when no more robust module is available.
The <tt class="module">dumbdbm</tt> module is not written for speed and is not nearly as
heavily used as the other database modules.
</div>

<p>
The <tt class="module">dumbdbm</tt> module provides a persistent dictionary-like interface
which is written entirely in Python.  Unlike other modules such as
<tt class="module"><a href="module-gdbm.html">gdbm</a></tt> and <tt class="module"><a href="module-bsddb.html">bsddb</a></tt>, no external library is required.  As
with other persistent mappings, the keys and values must always be strings.

<p>
The module defines the following:

<p>
<dl><dt><b><span class="typelabel">exception</span>&nbsp;<tt id='l2h-2547' xml:id='l2h-2547' class="exception">error</tt></b></dt>
<dd>
Raised on dumbdbm-specific errors, such as I/O errors.  <tt class="exception">KeyError</tt>
is raised for general mapping errors like specifying an incorrect key.
</dd></dl>

<p>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
  <td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-2548' xml:id='l2h-2548' class="function">open</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
  <td><var>filename</var><big>[</big><var>, flag</var><big>[</big><var>, mode</var><big>]</big><var></var><big>]</big><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Open a dumbdbm database and return a dumbdbm object.  The <var>filename</var>
argument is the basename of the database file (without any specific
extensions).  When a dumbdbm database is created, files with <span class="file">.dat</span> and
<span class="file">.dir</span> extensions are created.

<p>
The optional <var>flag</var> argument is currently ignored; the database is
always opened for update, and will be created if it does not exist.

<p>
The optional <var>mode</var> argument is the <span class="Unix">Unix</span> mode of the file, used
only when the database has to be created.  It defaults to octal
<code>0666</code> (and will be modified by the prevailing umask).

<span class="versionnote">Changed in version 2.2:
The <var>mode</var> argument was ignored in earlier
                versions.</span>

</dl>

<p>
<div class="seealso">
  <p class="heading">See Also:</p>

  <dl compact="compact" class="seemodule">
    <dt>Module <b><tt class="module"><a href="module-anydbm.html">anydbm</a></tt>:</b>
    <dd>Generic interface to <code>dbm</code>-style databases.
  </dl>
  <dl compact="compact" class="seemodule">
    <dt>Module <b><tt class="module"><a href="module-dbm.html">dbm</a></tt>:</b>
    <dd>Similar interface to the DBM/NDBM library.
  </dl>
  <dl compact="compact" class="seemodule">
    <dt>Module <b><tt class="module"><a href="module-gdbm.html">gdbm</a></tt>:</b>
    <dd>Similar interface to the GNU GDBM library.
  </dl>
  <dl compact="compact" class="seemodule">
    <dt>Module <b><tt class="module"><a href="module-shelve.html">shelve</a></tt>:</b>
    <dd>Persistence module which stores non-string data.
  </dl>
  <dl compact="compact" class="seemodule">
    <dt>Module <b><tt class="module"><a href="module-whichdb.html">whichdb</a></tt>:</b>
    <dd>Utility module used to determine the type of an
                      existing database.
  </dl>
</div>

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<span class="release-info">Release 2.5.1, documentation updated on 18th April, 2007.</span>
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